Although experts reassure that "no anomalies" are reported by the
close monitoring of the hull and that the de-fueling operations
run smoothly, with over 900 cubic meters of fuel pumped out so
far, underwater images of the capsized ship appear to tell a
different story.

Three dimensional images realized by a sophisticated multi-beam
sonar and laser technologies which can be used at depths of 1500
feet, revealed that the 950 foot-long, 116 foot-wide, 114,500-ton
ship precariously sits on two pieces of rock.

"The Concordia doesn't rest on a relatively flat rock platform.
On the contrary, the bow and stern sit on two rocks, one larger
and the other smaller. In between there is sloping sand which
degrades by 20 percent toward deep sea," Andrea Faccioli, sales
manager at Codevintec, the highly specialized company which
produced the 3D images, told Discovery News.

Further investigation, carried by the ROV two weeks later,
depicted an even more alarming scenario: the two pieces of rock
on which the ship balances are now crumbling.

Operated by the ISPRA, Italy's National Institute for
Environmental Protection and Research, the robot filmed the
underwater parts of the hull as it proceeded from the bow toward
the stern along that part of the ship which looks toward the sea.

Seen from those unique images, the 114,500-ton ship appears as
she is hanging in the blue sea without any support.

As it inspected the points of support in the bow, the robot
camera revealed deep gashes in the hull. The rock on which the
ship sits among bright red starfish, features a small crack,
while the hull appear to be have already deformed. The
deformation would be a consequence of the gravitational force to
which the ship is subjected in that unnatural position.

Near the stern, a deep crack on the rock supporting the
ship, is clearly visible.

According to the local daily Il Tirreno, features in the 8 inch
wide fracture would reveal that it did not occur as the ship
capsized, but it was produced recently under the ship's weight.

"The engineers are wise to imagine the things that can go wrong,
so that they can prevent them from happening. In order to prevent
the ship from breaking in two between the two supports, it may be
necessary to remove some weight from her middle," Chris McKesson,
professor of naval architecture at the School of Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of New
Orleans, told Discovery News.

"Of course, to assess whether the ship is in serious danger of
breaking would require structural calculations of the ship
strength," McKesson said.

The video is now been evaluated by experts. They will have to
establish whether the wrecked liner can resist in such a
precarious resting place for nearly a year. Experts estimate that
more than 10 months are required to remove the ship in its
entirety.

But Franco Gabrielli, the head of the Civil Protection Authority,
believes the footage is somewhat reassuring.

"It shows that a part of the seabed has got into the hull,
basically increasing the ship' stability," Gabrielli said in a
statement.